Housewife Who Stoned Sons Found Not Guilty

http://www.foxnews.com/ ^ | 4/3/04 | http://www.foxnews.com/

[spunkets]

"despairing thoughts"

Did your babies show up with spears in their cribs and did you hear voices telling you things?

[mrustow]

Absolutely not. But the verdict should be GUILTY by INSANITY.

Is that what they call "guilty by mental defect"? Do they have that in Texas? Not every state offers juries that option.

[Cvengr]

Is that a smirk or just a happy emotional facial expression? You gotta wonder if a judge can't immediately overrule his pronouncement if he witnesses behavior in the defendant which seems to overwhelmingly indicate guilt.

[cookiedough]

Genesis 15:2-4

God told Abraham that he would have a son and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars.

IMHO, if Abraham believed God, then when God told him to sacrifice Isaac, he must have realized the dichotomy and that something was going to happen to reverse that. Indeed, in Genesis 17, after Abraham proves that he trusts God, God again tells Abraham that his descendants will be "as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore."

God had told Abraham that he would have a son, something Abraham didn't believe could happen. He laughed when he heard it, because his wife was so old. But he did have a son, and it was proved thereby that Abraham was indeed listening to God.

So when God spoke to him again, Abraham continued to listen and to trust God.

Deanna Laney listened to what she thought was God. Her delusion persisted and became more intricate because she did not tell anyone about it. Everything was confined to her mind, kept a secret, and was fed by her religious beliefs, IMO. At no time did God ever prove to her that it was indeed He who was speaking to her, by rendering a miracle, as He did with Abraham.

That is the difference, as I see it.

[Howlin]

We don't have that option here in NC; but that's what it should be -- or something close to that; I don't know the correct words, but however it's denoted, it should mean, you ain't going to prison, but since we know you did it, go straight to an institution.

BTW, I'll go ever further: I'm in favor of a law that says once they are "cured" they go to prison.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Andrea Yates

[Donna Lee Nardo]

I agree with you. No such thing as temporary insanity in my book: if you are insane for one "event" then you can go off at any time. I do have some small sympathy for the mother (but she is way down on the list; her children are way, way at the top), but I still want her in jail FOREVER or at least in a mental hospital FOREVER. Rehabilitation? Ha! Never happens, right?

I abhore our criminal justice system at this point.

[deport]

That photo according to the caption was during closing arguments not after the verdict was rendered......

[dougherty]

Ditto to your whole post. This wench got away with murder. I saw her on Fox news during video footage of the verdict being read. She was so relieved. If I had killed my children while insane and was now doped up enough to realize what I did, they would have me on a constant suicide watch. I wouldn't want to be free, I'd be begging for someone to kill me. How can you live knowing you murdered your own kids in such an evil manner? Maybe some crazy person in the psych ward will stone this b*%#@ in return.

[deport]

Thanks... I had forget she was spared the needle because of the insanity but got life instead.... But she was found guilty which is more than this jury did..

[dougherty]

Ted Bundy had sex with the corpses of his victims. They fried him anyway.

For his sake, it's too bad he didn't have this jury. Murder is not a sane act and murderers should be punished. Imagine if the father had been the one to do this, he would have been hung, drawn and quartered.

[deport]

So the "Bible made me do it" defense will get you off in Texas?

---

Well it helps if you are pleading insanity to have all the shrinks saying you are insane as was in this case..... All five, two for the prosecution, two for the defense and one brought in by the court all seemed to agree....

Insanity isn't a easy defense to win in Texas or so it's claimed. Only a small precentage are successful or that's what I've read.

[spunkets]

"So the "Bible made me do it" defense will get you off in Texas?"

No. If the docs diagnose that you are completely nuts though, the jury and the law may send you to the nuthouse. That's, because the law recognizes punishment is justified by choices made. It is not justified if the person is incapable of making choices, but is driven by the random wanderings of a disfunctional mind.

[deport]

And sometimes so will the

"He needed killing defense"

[Ditter]

In Texas you can't be found Guilty & Insane. If they find that you are Insane then you are Not Guilty but they lock you up for the rest of your life in a prison for the criminaly insane. Does that make it better?

[Destro]

So the crazy because the "Bible made me do it" defense will get you off in Texas.

[Ditter]

I don't consider spending the rest of your life in a prison/hospital the same as "getting off". In Texas we don't execute insane people, no matter what you have heard about us. Neither do we let them loose.

[spunkets]

No. Her religion was just a part of her former mind. It is circumstantial. It could have been some strong attraction to a pet. Son of Sam was schizophrenic and Sam was a dog. The artist that tried to bomb a smiley face on the US was neither religious, or had pets. It was his art that showed up in his psychotic visions, hence the smiley face bombings. He can't even stand trial, because the authorities think he is too wacked out. He's just confined in a Rochester, MN nuthouse.

[Almondjoy]

That's correct.

[af_vet_1981]

Concur completely with 47